ST PAUL, Minn. — According to the Department of Natural Resources (DNR), 145 Minnesotans have died in boating accidents over the last decade, including one this year.
But that doesn't count the more than 700 other boating incidents since 2014 that weren't fatal. In many of those accidents, an impaired driver is behind the wheel.
"People say all the time, time heals all wounds and I don’t agree with that," said Alex Otte, who nearly died after being hit by a drunk boater in 2010.
Otte was 14 years old then when she was on a jet-ski in Kentucky, waiting for her mom and brother to tie up their boat so she could dock when she saw a 17-foot bass boat coming at her.
"My mom screamed, the boat banked to the left and never straightened up," recalled Otte. "He hit me from the side going a little over 60 miles-per-hour, threw me off the jet-ski and I landed face down in the water."
She broke her neck, jaw and both femurs. Her brain was bleeding in four places and the propeller severed one leg. Her parents pulled her on the back of a passing pontoon and Otte was airlifted to the hospital, sure she would die.
"I spent a week in coma, many weeks in the ICU, six weeks in a neck brace and three and a half months in a wheelchair," said Otte. "This is my life now."
In Minnesota, the DNR says alcohol is the main factor in more than half of boating fatalities. And while its laws don't prohibit people from drinking on a boat, operating one over .08 is illegal. If an operator refuses to take an enforcement officer's test, penalties go even higher and include:
- A higher fine
- Mandatory jail time
- Longer revocation times for operating privilege loss
- Loss of motor vehicle license plates
- Forfeiture of the motorboat and trailer being operated at the time of violation.
"If you are caught and get a BUI, you will spend time in jail," said Lauren Johnson with Mothers Against Drunk Driving Minnesota. She says environmental factors, like the sun, wind and motion, can accelerate the affects of alcohol, impairing boaters faster than driving a car.
"I'm so hurt by the fact that it's still happening because these crashes are 100% preventable," said Johnson. "It's really changing that culture of what does it look like being on a boat and being sober."
The DNR says there were nine fatalities in the state last year — the fewest in at least 10 years. Minnesota has a reputation for having some of the strictest impaired boating laws.
While Otte is fighting for more and pushing the federal government to finish setting a standard for smart technology now required in new cars to detect drunk driving. The HALT Act, signed into law on November 15, 2021, directs the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to work toward a regulation for that technology that passively, seamlessly and unobtrusively detects and stops impaired driving.
"He chose to drink, he chose to get behind the wheel of a boat, other people chose to watch and not stop him, and because of all those things, I nearly died," said Otte of the man who hit her.
Police say that Sammy Hackler had a blood alcohol level of .15, nearly twice the legal limit in Kentucky. Yet, a grand jury never indicted him on the charges he faced and Hackler was later fined and let go.
As for Otte, she says she forgives Hackler. The now 27-year-old is also a wife and mother who finds solace in solutions to try and make the boating industry safer.
"I want him to know he didn’t win, that while I still struggle and live with what he did to me and will never forget it, I still came out on top," said Otte.
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